My Beautiful Neighbor
by tsukikon
Summary: Amu, a student in an all girl school, is a hardcore otaku and can't seem to stop. It also doesn't really help when a hot, sexy, manga artist moves in right across from her.
1. Chapter 1

3:24 am

Her head started to pound, her fingers ached and her eyes felt momentarily relief as she closed them. She did it again. She opened her eyes and clicked on the "next" button.

"After I'm done," Amu muttered. Last Game have been one of her favorite mangas, she needed to finish this.

Amu Hinamori was a silent girl. She preferred to sit in a corner and read a few more pages of Shugo Chara! than go and gossip about frivolous things. It was probably her anti-social tendencies and her unintentional glares that made people want to stay away from her, but then again, it did not bother her. It didn't bother her that she sat alone at lunch or she always had to be partnered last during school projects.

Her parents had been rather paranoid about Amu's relationships with boys. They were always afraid that she would suddenly meet the wrong guy and "elope to a far, far, land" as her father would say. Hence, she was shipped to an all-girls school. It had been already been three years since then. Their house was only a few blocks away from her school while the boys' school was at the other side of the city so there weren't too many boys that roamed around her part of area. Now that she thought about it, she hadn't talked to a boy her age since the start of 9th grade.

Amu gave an unlady-like yawn and trudged to her closet after an epic battle in her mind that convinced her that changing from muddy, smelly clothes to warm pajamas was worth the few minutes to be away from her precious manga.

She looked out of her large window, unimpressed. Her house was surrounded by quite a few others that had a similar height so there was a clear view of the room from the house across from her own. Oh. She had left the blinds open by accident. Laziness and stinging eyes convinced her it didn't matter since the other house was a vacant one and large enough to cover her from any street of perverts lurking around anyways.

Or at least that's what she thought.

It wasn't until the light of the supposed empty room turned on as she was half-way through taking off her shirt that made her remember the moving truck that had been circling around the area yesterday afternoon. A sharp pair of sapphire eyes that belonged to something called a "man" rested upon her. Amu froze.

It was unbelievable that in spite of her situation, her brain, and hormones had managed to clearly inform her that this man was incredibly good-looking.


	2. Chapter 2

The next day, she found herself sipping tea with him. Her parents were determined to go to a market across town and apparently were unable to trust Amu to take care of the house. So to solve their really nonexistent problem, not even bothering to consider bringing her with them, whisked her to a different house. The one across from them.

She stole another glance at the amazing-er, aloof guy who seemed to hardly pay any attention to her at all. However, Amu wasn't quite sure if he was actually reading the book considering he hadn't turned the page for ten minutes. Now that she thought about it, she didn't even know his name. Her parents mentioned it once, but Amu was too busy making a big fuss about it all to actually hear, but she did know he was the same age as her.

Feeling pressured from the awkward atmosphere, Amu gave a sigh and fished through her bag to eagerly take out one of her favorite mangas, Black Butler.

"Aah, Sebastian is so hot," Amu squealed quietly, flipping forward to the first page.

"You're pretty behind," a low voice speculated, after what could have been hours later. Amu flinched at the sudden interruption.

"Isn't that part from a year ago?" The tall man was no longer sitting on the white chair across from her, but instead was standing right behind her, peering at the page she was on.

"Wha-?" Amu automatically blushed. If she moved even an inch to her right, she would be bumping into his face.

"That part where Ciel orders Sebastian to save him," he pointed. Amu looked down at the page.

"Oh, that part. I've already read this volume but the library still hasn't put out the next one." Amu frowned at the memory from only a few hours ago and seeing the anticipated volume missing.

There was a brief pause before Ikuto suddenly turned around and went through the hallway, Amu heard a door click open but shrugged and flipped a page.

It wasn't until a few minutes later when three books suddenly fell next to her. They were the next three volumes of Black Butler. Amu simply blinked at them.

"Give them back after you're finished. The prices have been steadily rising," he muttered as he sunk back to his chair. Amu's mouth dropped open in glee. She reached over and started flipping through one of them. She noticed a name on the back cover.

IKUTO TSUKIYOMI

The library almost never updated their manga list so to have the volumes so close by...

"What do you want for it?" Amu asked suspiciously. She could hardly believe that someone would let a stranger borrow their manga so freely. There was a brief pause before he glanced up from his book he had continued to pick up.

"Last night..." he trailed off, not quite meeting her eye. Amu felt herself become furiously red from embarrassment. So she hadn't been the only one who had been thinking of the incident before.

"Ah..." was all Amu could say as she looked intently at the stack next to her."I'll return them back as soon as possible, is tomorrow okay?" Ikuto curtly nodded.

"Are you waiting for any other mangas?" Ikuto asked her, now turning back to his book.

"I suppose...quite a few-"

"I probably have them," he muttered, "I probably have all of the ones you want the updates from. You could borrow them as long as you give them back."

"Eh? It's okay! I don't need to go as far as bothering you," Amu protested quickly, waving her hands around wildly, "If the updates get really bad I'll just read them online or something-"

"I'd rather have you borrow it," he said more sharply than Amu expected. Amu suddenly had an absurd idea that maybe, just maybe, he was offering the suggestion because he wanted her to come over more...

"I didn't say it because I particularly wanted you to come over more," he said with an amused smirk. Amu felt herself become pink. "I'm simply saying it as a manga artist. Online manga sites are like youtube for music. It's great for spreading popularity but not so good money- wise." Amu froze in the middle of standing up as she reviewed the sentence in her mind.

"WHAT?" Amu nearly yelled, "YOU'RE a manga artist?" Her views of him changed quite a bit.

"Yea," he said, giving a shrug as if it wasn't a big deal. Amu gasped.

"So that explains why you can say so confidently that you have all the mangas I wanted updates for," Amu said slowly.

"I actually might not have all the shojo mangas. I generally have reference and shounen books," he added with a nod. Amu watched the clock's minute hand move in a dazed fashion as she tried to remember a question that she had always asked herself if she would ever meet a real manga artist.

"What mangas have you published?" Amu asked as she continued to struggled to remember the question with a strained expression on her face.

"I'm just an artist and I've only published one or two and they were one shots." Amu nodded. She had read plenty of wonderful one shots. "However, I did recently team up with a partner a few weeks ago. It should be up soon."

"What's it called?"

"That's classified," he replied. Amu rolled her eyes. Suddenly she remembered.

"Have you ever met Ouji?" Amu blurted out.

"Ouji?," Ikuto repeated.

"The mangaka of Easter!" Amu clarified. "Haven't you heard of him?"

"That mangaka? Of course I've heard of him. Everyone who is even a little interested in manga would have opened that and consequently learn of the author, but I've never met him."

"Easter is one of my favorites. It's considered a shounen but there's enough romance for even someone like me to get interested and the comedy is truly hilarious. The whole pLot is fantastic! I also hear that Ouji is amazingly handsome and kind," Amu added with a sigh.

Ikuto shut the book he was holding and set it on the ground. "This Ouji person is a lot like the writer of Death Note, Tsugumi Ohba from what I heard. He doesn't really give any personal information about himself, yet still has an exploding number of fans. Especially around women. Are you sure this Ouji person is even a guy?"

"Nope. Technically, he could be a girl but I don't think so."

"Why?"

"Just call it a woman's intuition," Amu replied, snapping her fingers.

"Considering your chest size, I'm not sure I would consider you a woman," he said with another amused smirk, a warm feeling spread across her body.

"Sh-shut up!"

"Anyways, he'd old news now. Ouji hasn't updated Easter in three years, he probably stopped being a mangaka altogether."

"How can you be so sure?" Amu demanded. "Wait...It couldn't be...that you're him?" Ikuto spared her a "what an idiot" look before answering.

"You've been reading too many mangas. I'm not him," Ikuto snapped. Amu took a step back. She was full of absurd ideas today.

"Right. I didn't think so. He's probably not a pervert," Amu added defensively as she turned away. "He's probably more like Tadase!"

"Tadase? Another mangaka?" he asked. Amu twirled around.

"Nope. My childhood friend. I bet he could be one though. He's truly a prince and he's so nice."

"As long as you're looking for this Ouji, couldn't that mangaka be him?" Ikuto noted. Amu rolled her eyes.

"No way! I know him really well and he couldn't have..." Amu trailed off. She actually wasn't very sure. At some moments her friend who used to be a crybaby when he was younger seemed so much older and mature than her. "Anyways, Tadase isn't the type to do something like that."

Suddenly there was a knock on the door. Ikuto went over to open it.

"Ah! Sorry, dear! Ikuto! I hope my daughter wasn't a burden!" Amu's mother apologized as she stepped inside. "Amu do you have his cellphone number?" Amu shook her head as if it was a ridiculous question. "You should get it, just in case!" her mother said sternly before turning around to give Ikuto a warm smile.

He took out his phone and flipped it open and handed it to Amu. She typed in her phone number and was about to take out her own phone when he stopped her.

"I'll just send you a text, it'll be easier," he said. Amu gave a smile and nodded. She suddenly noticed her necklace on the ground. It had a large white flower design attached to a golden lock, making it fairly noticeable. Before she could reach over and pick it up, Ikuto was already holding it.

"This is yours, right?" he asked. Amu nodded and held her hand out to take it when she noticed Ikuto was looking down at it intently at the necklace, or the lock to be exact.

"Ikuto?" He suddenly snapped back to Earth and gave her the necklace without another word however just as she and her mother were about to walk out the door he did ask, "Who gave you that necklace?"

"T-Tadase," Amu stuttered, feeling strange about his rather peculiar actions. Ikuto gave a bow to her mother and they were gone.

As soon as his guests left, he slowly trudged to the couch Amu had been sitting on and reached into his pocket once more. Dangling in his hand was a key that seemed to have an identical flower as the lock.

Chapter 2 END

Let me first say that I was SHOCKED! I was really happy about the reviews/followers/favorites! They seriously made my day! Thank you!

Another important note is Puck's Favorite Girl was kind enough to agree to beta read this story! Her stories are well-written and have great story plot so definitely check them out if you haven't already!

(Chapter 1 has been edited but nothing plot-wise has changed)

Please review about your opinions~


	3. Chapter 3

_Once upon a time there was a young damsel in distress_.

"What's it called again?" her neighbor asked as he bent down to check the lower shelves.

"_Namida Usagi - Seifuku no Kataomoi_," Amu replied.

He shook his head, "I don't think I have it after all." He had a regretful tone in his said words.

"It's alright," Amu said. It was disappointing, but the feeling dissolved quickly after getting a good look of the room. It was like heaven. The room was technically large but was crammed with tall bookshelves all dedicated to mangas and reference books. Looking closely she could see dust piling on top of the less heard of, reminding her strongly of the time when she went to a antique history museum. She carefully walked around as if she was in a room full of expensive china.

"The further you go in, the more reference books and less mangas," he noted as he stood up and brushed himself off. Amu twirled around to give him a nod when she noticed a dog dish with its sides imprinted with bones.

"You own a dog?"

"Cat," he corrected as he pulled out a manga from one of the shelves. She walked over and picked the bowl up. It was completely clean. She gave a glance behind her shoulder before questioning Ikuto.

"Where is it?"

"It ran away," he said all too casually, making it difficult to show any sympathy for his loss.

"Shouldn't you be worried?" Amu asked as she put the dish down.

"Not really. He comes back when he wants Chinese takeout," Ikuto said with a shrug.

"I can see why he ran away..." The room, despite seeming important to the mangaka, looked rather untouched. "Your daily life is nothing what I expected from a mangaka."

"Been reading _Bakuman_, lately?" Ikuto asked as he glanced up from his book.

"Well it's kind of similar right? High school student, mangaka, artist. He was crazy busy and he was always with his writer."

"It's just the time of year-" he suddenly stopped. Amu blinked, unsure what was happening. Ikuto's eyes suddenly flickered toward the front door. Amu opened her mouth to ask what was wrong until she realized that he was listening to something.

Then she heard it. The small noise of something clinking. Her body froze up. She heard inaudible muffles. Amu followed Ikuto out of the Manga room to the living room.

"The door is unlocked you know," Ikuto said loudly to the door.

The door gave an explosion like no other and two people piled inside.

"See? What did I tell you! It was a waste of time!" a long haired girl with familiar purple eyes yelled at the orange haired boy as she stormed in. The boy who was holding a handful of bent hairpins seemed somewhat disappointed.

"I was almost there. It would have been cool if I was able to sneak in here," Kukai said with an added grin.

"I told you it was already open. I'm not even sure what you could have done," Ikuto said with rolled eyes.

"Well, I actually got the idea when I saw another guy..." Meanwhile, Amu was still frozen stiff. She had never been comfortable with strangers and now after three years, the appearance of a guy seemed...alienated to her. It was strange, Ikuto hadn't given this kind of vibe to her before and it was clear that this...Kukai, as he was named, seemed nothing of a threat.

"So, who is this girl?" the blond girl asked. Amu looked at her, there was something incredibly unpleasant about her...

"Amu. Utau, why is Kukai here anyways?" Ikuto said quickly as he tried to turn the attention away from the pink haired girl.

"There are finals coming up and I wanted to form a study group-" Kukai was abruptly interrupted by Utau.

"He wants to have the ramen that he had last time."

"I thought so," Ikuto sighed, "no way Kukai would actually study."

"Psh. I study. I just don't get the woman's reproductive-"

"It's the Kreb's Cycle, for heaven's sake!" Utau exclaimed, "Even man needs it to survive!" Kukai wasn't listening though. He started humming a tune that made Amu wonder if the boy was tone deaf. Suddenly, the humming paused as he turned around to Ikuto.

"Oh, yea I also invited him-"

"Oh no," Utau started shaking her head. "You invited more people?"

"You're on a roll today-"

"Huh?" Utau asked as she and the group watched Kukai pop the ramen bag.

"On interrupting m-"

"Do I hear the door opening?" she interrupted him. Amu heard the door squeak and she leaned back to see who the newcomer was. It was a guy, however it was someone that didn't give her the strange feelings. In fact, it gave her butterflies instead.

"Tadase?" she whispered. She hadn't seen him in three years. The boy seemed just as shocked as well.

"Oh, you know each other?" Utau questioned looking at the two. Amu flashbacked to the time she and Tadase had last spoken to each other and an unsettling silence filled the room.

She opened her mouth and then closed it, only to open it again like a goldfish, unsure of what to say. It was Tadase, her prince, who first said something.

"Crap, the spell is broken."

* * *

CHAPTER 3 END

(Just for in case the line doesn't work)

I ditched studying for finals. Oops. Well, at least you get an update...?

I'm sorry for the really late update. My school had mood swings and even though we usually have finals before break, we had it after. So I procrastinated. How am I going to survive this? I want to roll up in my blanket and sleep. Not study for AP bio or Calc. Ew.

Well enough of my boring life,

Please review! Thank you to all who did previously.


	4. Chapter 4

The girls in her school seemed awfully excited today.

"Did you see that guy?"

"He looks so good looking!"

"He'd be perfect for someone like our own model, Rima."

"No…Saaya would be a better match for him..."

Amu removed her cover of the bento box and flinched at the sight of what looked like old spaghetti uncooked.

_Papa made Amu's lunch with lots of love so make sure you eat it alright?_

Amu sighed, if only her mother didn't have an urgent meeting today. Amu felt her stomach grumble and attempted to take a bite out of her lunch...except the noodles didn't really separate from each other and it was rock hard. She decided instead, to stick with the juice that was also packed in her bag. It wasn't until she finished, did she realize that it was well past the expired date. Well, whatever, why does it matter anyways?

His "lunch of love" didn't really surprise Amu. Her father was known to have burned water, after all.

* * *

Amu smiled as she was handed her new manga, Retsae.

"Even the local manga store didn't have this!"

"I'm a mangaka, remember?" Ikuto reminded her. Amu giggled but paused. She looked at him curiously.

It had been a few weeks since she had made acquaintance with the mangaka living across from her, and yet this was the first time Amu had ever seen him actually move actively.

He was moving the couch, looking underneath the fridge, and even picking up the empty dog/cat bowl.

"What's wrong?" Amu asked.

"His key is missing," Kukai who popped out of nowhere, replied. Amu tensed up at his sudden appearance. Ikuto quickly waved his hand. "It's not the house key or anything. Just something I had..."

"What does it look like?" Amu asked checking below the couch. Ikuto didn't answer. "Ikuto?"

"Maybe I left it outside," he said tapping on the floor. "That jogging road...I took it with me last night and it might have fallen off my pocket-"

"Have you talked to Tadase recently?" Kukai cut him off.

"No…not really. I don't know his phone number." Amu hesitating at the abrupt change of topic.

"Hm. He was kinda weird yesterday...taking off something about a spell and stuff..." Kukai's eyes lit up. "Oh, why don't we send Amu to help out?" Kukai asked with a grin. Amu smiled, she decided this could be for all the mangas she was borrowing.

"That's a good idea!" Amu said lightly.

"It's a long road, Kukai. Why don't you go out there instead?" Ikuto snapped.

"No way! It'll ruin my beautiful face," Kukai joked as he pulled out a wrinkled map from his pocket. He wrote down something and handed it to Amu. "It's a map of that jogging place. Sakura Road."

"Then I'll go ahead. I felt a little guilty coming here really often and helping you out will make me feel better," she said setting down her manga with great care. Before Ikuto could say a word, Amu quickly went out.

The Sakura Road was known for, well, it's Sakura trees that were planted along the side of the road. Amu used to come here often with her parents, especially during the night when the lamp posts would light up.

"Too bad it's not the season," Amu said softly as she scanned through the ground and the side of the trees.

After about fifteen minutes, other than a few wrappers glinting from the sunlight, she couldn't find any sign of the key. She was beginning to feel disappointed and tried to ebb the feeling by unfolding the map that Kukai gave her.

She slowly scanned it and found small writing in the corner that was followed by ten digits.

_This is Ikuto's number! Good luck! ;D_

Amu blushed. Now that she thought about it, Ikuto never sent her the text. What did Kukai mean by "Good Luck"? She frowned but felt a surge of motivation nonetheless and skipped down the road.

Two hours passed...

"Where are they?" Amu wondered. She passed the same dog shaped tree about six times already. The sun was slowly going down.

_Hey. This is Amu. I can't seem to find it._

Amu texted. She read it a thousand times before sending it. Immediately, her phone rang. It was from Ikuto.

_Sorry. I'm coming right now._

Amu read and reread the text, feeling fuzzy inside. Suddenly she doubled over and grimaced. _The juice!_ her mind screamed. The stupid expiration date was there for a reason, after all.

She managed to crawl to a nearby bench. She tried to remember her mother's techniques to make a stomach ache go away.

"You're here, huh?" Amu jumped, not making it any better for her stomach, and turned to Ikuto who was out of breath.

"I-I was l-looking..." her mouth wasn't able to form the words. Ikuto nodded.

"It's probably hopeless. Kukai went home as soon as you left. But...are you okay?" he added, evidently noticing Amu clenching her shirt tightly.

"L-let's continue to look for it," Amu said quickly. She wanted him to ignore it but her stomach felt otherwise as it gave another painful attack.

"Does your stomach hurt?" Damn it. Her palms started to sweat and she felt more and more embarrassed.

"I'm _fine_," Amu said trying to be more convincing. It was getting more painful and more urgent by the second.

"Do you have medicine?" Amu could feel herself becoming red. Did she seem to be the type to have upset stomachs all the time?

"No..."

She could see couples passing by, whispering. Frustration mixed with shame bubbled up in Amu. His worried face made her feel heavy with guilt. He offered his hand, "Then I'll walk you home, can you stand-?"

"GO AWAY!" she yelled turning away. Amu immediately regretted it. She didn't dare to look at his face. There was a brief silence.

"Fine," was his simple reply. She heard the sound of footsteps become fainter.

Amu felt absolutely awful. She needed to apologize. But first she needed to get some medicine for her stomach.

It took a while but she managed to find a supermarket and picked out the regular pills. She tried to think of ways to give a decent apology as she stood in line. He was probably really pissed. She wished she was like Koyoko from _Skip Beat!_ where even in dire situations she could give honest apologies right there and then. There were high pitched giggles from the few girls in front of her. Amu leaned sideways, curious on what was going on.

In front of the cashier was...Ikuto? He was holding a box of something. Amu couldn't help but feel selfishly hopeful. He couldn't be buying it for her-

"So two box of menstrual pain relief pills and a bottle of water?" the cashier asked awkwardly.

"Er...So this one is supposed to work faster and the other one is supposed to be more effective?" Ikuto asked with a blank expression, "I wonder which one Amu would want..."

Amu froze.

No way...

"His girlfriend must be cruel!" one of the giggling girls whispered not too softly.

"Haha! I definitely feel bad!" her friends agreed.

Refusing to let him stand any more of this, Amu jumped out of line and held her relief pills high and proud.

"WAIT IKUTO! THAT'S NOT IT!"

* * *

Hey-ho! Thanks for reading!

It's ski week!

More time for procrastination!

Please review.


	5. Chapter 5

**SIDE STORY (meaning not exactly part of the plot...but I guess it doesn't really matter.) **

* * *

It all happened that day. Amu had innocently walked up to his porch. It had poured last night and had left a gloomy scent.

Amu raised her fist to knock on the door. The door didn't open. Strange. Ikuto had always seemed to have a telepathic way of knowing exactly when she was about to knock and open the door.

Even after the bang of her fists..no one seemed to be home. Of course, this was normal but it still felt a bit strange. Amu decided to go down the porch steps to see if it was possible to see his room when she suddenly tripped over her laces and landed on her face.

"HASDAJH!" she screamed. Or at least that was suppose to happen. Someone caught her arm just in time and she ended up falling on top of her savior. She blinked.

"Ikuto?" she yelled. The boy gave her a "what-an-idiot" look and grumbled that she was extremely heavy. She ignored that last part and jumped backwards and blushed furiously as this seemed to have happened in simply every romantic shojo manga in the world. She spent a few seconds wishing that she had screamed in a more cutesy, manga-ish way. Like "Kya!" or something. Amu looked up to ask where he had gone when she noticed he was limping.

"Ikuto?"

* * *

"Well, thankfully he doesn't move anywhere," Utau the sister explained as Amu stared at Ikuto with guilt.

"S-sorry, Ikuto," she choked out.

"It's not a big deal," he sighed.

"Well, as long as he stays in the house then it should be okay. Don't beat yourself over it. It was more this guy's fault for magically tripping and somehow twisting his ankle." Ikuto shot a glare at Utau who just shrugged. "Especially because the crutch the doctor was too small for him. I think he's getting a little senile." She gave another shrug and left.

"After you leave the mangas you can go home," Ikuto said as he managed to get to his couch.

"But-"

"It's fine." Amu stayed. Even with his injured foot, he managed to drag Amu out of the house.

Of course Amu refused to actually leave. Getting an extra scarf and jacket, she stood guard at the door, making sure that Ikuto really didn't take a foot out of the house. The house had a similar interior to her own so she was sure there was no other door than this one.

Sure enough, her suspicions of Ikuto were proved correct when he opened the door to find her pink-faced and wrapped with three thick sweaters.

"Wha-?"

"Where do you think you're going?" she demanded.

"Outside. What are you doing here? I told you to go home!"

"The doctor told you to stay at home!"

"Well, I already told Kukai I would meet him."

"Tell him to come here!"

"I can't contact him now. He's at soccer practice. Just hurry up home. You'll catch a cold." Amu glared at Ikuto and put his arm over her shoulder.

"Well, too bad, Ikuto. I don't feel like it. Where is this place anyways?"

"Seiyuu Cafe. That new place."

"Great, such a place so far away..."

* * *

"We came here way too early," Ikuto noted as he checked his watch. Amu refused to give eye contact. He took out some money and handed it to her. "Buy me a sandwich. I'll give you half." he ordered with a smirk. Amu looked at the money and then him and groaned.

_A sandwich and few smoothies later._

"It's almost time, for Kukai to come. Well, I better get going," Amu said as she got up and waved. Ikuto waved back. As she walked down the street she smiled. It was unexpectedly fun. Kinda like a date, she giggled. She suddenly remembered the marketplace that she was suppose to attend to yesterday but didn't because she heard the new Nisekoi volume came out and was on sale. Her mother had given a list of things to buy too.

As soon as she arrived at the destination she froze. She saw Kukai walking down the aisle for power drinks.

"Kukai? What are you doing here? Didn't you need to meet Ikuto after your soccer practice?" Amu called. Kukai waved but had a confused expression on his face.

"Huh? I was? But I didn't even have soccer practice today."

After checking the time once more, Ikuto limped out of his table and dragged his "injured foot" as he went out the store. He started walking slowly, annoying all the people behind him. He suddenly stopped and ripped off his cast. He smirked mischievously as he looked back the cafe. "I guess I should thank Utau."

* * *

This was NOT beta-edited. Hence bunch of problems -.- WhatamIdoingwithmylife

I shall get back to my slightly longer, regular chapters soon!

Anyways, review?


	6. Chapter 6

_"Hello? Hello? Ikuto, can you hear me, over?"_

Ikuto's #:120513

Amu stared at the number for a long time. Her mother had wanted Amu to give apples to Ikuto for being "such a gentleman" or whatnot but wanted to check if he was home. Amu felt it would be a waste of time considering that Amu SHE could see his room right from her window but her mother insisted. Amu took a big breath and pressed SEND.

One ring. Two rings. There was a small click.

"Hey, Ikuto! Are you home? I was thinking of returning some of your mangas-"

"Who is this?" a sharp, thin and most-definitely-not-Ikuto's voice interrupted her, making Amu jump. Her brain felt as if it had turned into ice and blanked out.

"Ah..uh..." Amu stumbled rather stupidly.

"This is Utau's phone why are...and that brat still hasn't done away with that foolish hobby?" The last line didn't seem like Amu should have heard and there was fury in the man's voice. "Don't you dare call this number again!"

The phone clicked off. Amu stared at her phone for a long time.

* * *

At Ikuto's house...

Amu's mouth dropped.

"So…that means...the phone number you gave me...wait, no, Kukai gave me wasn't yours?"

"Which was why my text message was delayed. My phone broke a while ago. I thought of getting one soon but it seems so bothersome that I've been putting it off."

"What's bothersome about it?"

"Nothing. The shadow is too dark here," he added as he quickly tapped his grip eraser at the bottom part of the shoe in his drawing. Amu watched him.

"B-but...how do you contact people like in an emergency?"

"Hasn't happened, but I have Utau's phone. She owns about 7 numbers so she's not going to run out any time soon."

"Seven? What for?"

"She's a wannabe idol-"

"A wannabe?" Utau, entered the room with a frown. Amu couldn't help but be captivated by how similar Utau was to Ikuto.

"-and many creepers like to call her. None of your albums have done the phenomena you were hoping for."

"Isn't that true for your petty mangas?" Utau responded defensively. Ikuto didn't answer but he did look at Utau with raised eyebrows.

"I guess…I'll just leave.." Amu quickly excused herself as she headed out the door. The air was suffocating. She decided to take a trip to the bookstore but just as she arrived, Utau suddenly called out to her. Utau?

"Wait, Amu!" Amu spun around.

"Ah...sorry," Amu apologized. Utau waved her hand, motioning that it was okay.

"I could sense a fight about to come so I decided to stalk you. I followed you for two miles straight about three feet behind you, how did you not notice me? You have terrible sixth sense."

"Ah..." Amu pulled her hair and gave her an apologetic grin.

"Well, I guess you're also used to this extraneous exercise? Walking two miles and all."

"Well actually it isn't two miles but only two blocks so I can't say...The distance between the elementary school that Ami, she's my little sister, and the high school I go to is about the same amount."

"Really? High school huh? I never went to school. Sounds fun though." One child doesn't have a cellphone and another never went to school. Kinda odd, Amu mused.

"You guys seem to be on pretty bad terms, huh?" Amu thought aloud. She regretted it. Relationships weren't a subject that should be taken lightly.

"Well...we used to be super close but I guess distance just drove us apart. It's really awkward now. You talked to Father, huh?" Utau clenched her fist as she opened the door to enter the building. They could feel the immediate cool of the a/c as they walked in.

"Yea..."

"He never liked Ikuto very much. Didn't like me that much either. I think he only liked Mom. So what did my dear father say?"

"To stay away from you...Kinda angrily."

"Darn. So he still hasn't calmed down? Well, I did run away from home..." Amu opened her mouth in from shock.

"Don't worry, if he wanted to find me he would have found me a long time ago. He's having a break too."

"I see..." Amu quickly searched for a new topic to talk about. She wasn't actually sure why she needed to find one, considering that her first impression of Utau wasn't that good but she also felt that it was wrong to just walk away awkwardly. "It's weird that Ikuto doesn't have a phone," Amu blurted out from desperation.

"Oh him? Isn't he just scared?"

"Scared?" Amu had a difficult time imagining Ikuto being scared of anything.

"Yea. You know, although Ikuto seems like he might be a cool, aloof person, he has a silver bullet."

"Silver bullet?" Amu immediately thought of _Case Closed_.

"Yea...it involves his poor old cellphone. It was a nice model too. Although I think you're different from other weird girls out there, I am pretty doubtful you can win against _her_. Good luck on that."

"B-but…I don't really, or kinda sorta, or just not...I don't like him!" Amu quickly protested but was also extremely bothered by Utau's statement. Utau grinned understandingly and glanced ahead.

"Isn't that Kukai?" Utau winked and caught up with the orange haired boy who was having a pleasant conversation with a group of elderly people. He gave a cheerful greeting to Amu from a distance. Amu smiled and waved back. She suddenly didn't feel like going back in the book store and decided to head home.

Amu sighed as she gazed into the window of an electronic store that was probably the oldest shop in the area. When she returned to earth, she found the large shop manager glaring at her. Suddenly, she got an idea. Amu grinned, she was a genius.

Ikuto slammed the new stack of paper onto the table in his room. His productivity had dropped greatly these days. His publisher was going to kill him for sure.

From the corner of his eye, he suddenly noticed something he was very sure wasn't there before he left. A static muffled voice came from the strange item. He glanced out his window and back at the thing, or more specifically, the walkie-talkie.

He smirked.

_"Yea, I can, over."_

* * *

Phew, I'm done. To those who were unsure about the side chapter, yep Ikuto was just faking his injury. Sorry for not making that clear.

I'm quite surprised at how slowly this story is going though. I thought I would be at the climate of the story by now (aim was like a 7-10 chapter story), I'm starting to wonder if I should have just made a series of one shots instead.

This was also wonderfully beta-edited by Puck's Favorite Girl (sobbing that _Safe and Sound_ ended. Go henceforth and read her stories if you haven't already!).

Walkie-talkies are so cool. I bought one for my birthday a week ago and managed to break it in the first half-hour of opening it. Oops. Well, at least it was cheap..ish.

Review?


	7. Chapter 7

Amu had a deep dark secret. She had a "disease" as she called it. She would catch it every two or three years. Usually it didn't last more than a few hours. But this time it was different. It had been three whole days.

"I _hate _manga."

She felt it was the most childish and stupidest thing in the world. The anime/manga memes that she found on Facebook didn't seem as relatable as before and mangas she had felt so dear about suddenly felt terrible as the messed up American cartoons for toddlers.

Amu couldn't tell what she had done with her life. Those many hours where she could have done something fun or something helpful, she had spent locked in her room. Those many hours she could have studied to pursue her now-long-gone ambition, learning the violin.

Even her mother who didn't really approve her obsession with manga noticed something was different.

"Dear...d-did Ichigo find his childhood friend with the real key yet?" her mother asked as casually as she could.

"You mean Ichijou?" Amu was discussing _Nisekoi _the other day, she felt smacking herself for correcting her mother's mistake. It was too instinctive. "How the hell should I know?" Amu snapped and stormed up to her room. She immediately found her prized collection of mangas all over the floor. She felt her blood boil but quickly told herself that she was upset because of the mess and not that her mangas were dirtied, folded, and disorganized.

"AMI!" She yelled as she jerked open her sister's door. The little girl who was playing with her barbie's doll stared at her with surprise. "I told you not to go through my stuff!"

The little girl didn't say anything but looked at Amu with large, reproachful eyes. Amu sighed, she didn't have the heart to yell any longer and she was getting a headache. However to Ami it was enough for her to scream and cry. This immediately caught her mother's attention.

Suddenly, a call from her phone came. Thinking it was her friend, Amu clicked OK but she quickly remembered she didn't really have friends in the first place.

"Amu, what did you do?" her mother demanded as she picked up Ami who was bawling her eyes out.

"Nothing. It was Ami-"

"Just because you're having a bad day doesn't mean you can just yell and blame," her mother lectured. Amu, bubbling with anger stormed into her room and slammed the door shut without replying.

She suddenly remembered her cellphone that she had forgotten about.

"Hello?"

"Just in case you want to know, my underwear is green today," a cheerful and familiar voice replied back.

"Why would I-"

"It's Kukai. Got your number from Ikuto." Amu smiled. He must have heard the argument.

"I see, what did you want?"

"Ikuto says that he needs all the mangas you borrowed."

"Why didn't he just call me then?" She didn't want them anyway.

"He didn't call me either. His publisher told a friend and the friend told Ikuto's sister and his sister told me and I'm telling you. He couldn't get anywhere near his phone." There was a bitter something about that statement.

"Got it, thanks." Amu ended the call. She quickly sweeped up all the mangas she borrowed and fled out the door. Ikuto's door was unlocked.

"Hey, Ikuto, it isn't safe-" A whiff of a vile smell brought Amu to immediately close the door. Feeling something was wrong, she pinched her nose and opened it again.

Amu froze. For a second she was sure she was in the wrong house.

It seemed as if a tornado of papers had whipped through the room. Reference books were scattered across the floor and mangas stacked on the usually empty couches. Smelly Chinese takeout boxes overflowed the overturned trashcans. In the middle of the mess sat Ikuto who was drawing as if there was no tomorrow, something that Amu had never seen before. His eyes had bags underneath them, he had a severe case of bed head and was looking especially pale. Amu had the feeling that he wasn't the one eating all those Chinese junk food.

"I-Ikuto?" Amu said hesitantly, unsure if she should bother him. He didn't seem to notice her. Amu waited for a few minutes, in slight awe and eventually turned to leave when he replied.

"What?"

"So you did hear me."

"It could have been anyone."

"I'm returning these books to you. Kukai told me."

"I didn't think you would return them to me so quickly," he glanced at the large stacks of books.

"Well, I don't like them anymore. I'm not going to read manga anymore!" she said more loudly than expected. This time Ikuto glanced at _her_. Amu couldn't help but be reminded of Ami's reproachful eyes.

"Is that so?" his voice was low and monotone. Amu picked up a piece of paper

_Once upon a time there was a young damsel in distress_.

Amu looked up from the paper with a frown. The line looked quite familiar. Where had she heard it?

She bit the end of her nail, trying to remember where she's heard of it before.

"Hey, Ikuto, have you heard of this line?" Amu held the paper out for him as she watched him draw the outline of a perfect face in one go.

"It sounds like a line from a fairy tale-"

"How does this line look like it came from Fairy Tail? I can't imagine anyone saying this at all. Well maybe from Levy?" Ikuto gave her a look as she realized her mistake.

"Okay, well, I didn't mean that but I guess it's also from Retsae. Too bad you stopped reading I was going to show you the latest volume too." Amu froze. Now that she thought about it, she had waited for 6 hours in front of the bookstore just to buy the first volume of the book.

"WHAT? I thought that Retsae hadn't had the second volume yet?"

"Mangaka's privileges-" He muttered as he pushed a few papers aside to reveal the volume that shouldn't have existed yet.

"GIVE IT TO ME!" Amu dived but missed, grabbing the book and falling right on top of him. Amu blushed furiously and jumped backwards.

"Here," he gave the book and seemed to be unfazed by the act. Amu bit her lips as she watched him sit down and continue his work.

"You know, I take that back," Amu said with a grin as she turned away.

"What?"

"I don't think I'm going to stop reading after all. Manga. It's great, I knew it!" She walked out his door, a complete otaku once more.

* * *

A fun chapter to write! Sorry for the late update.

Review?


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